The previous post in this blog is Geneva & Chamonix.
The next post in this blog is Album - Lofoten Day 1 & 2.
Travel : Lofoten Islands
At last we left Mud island for the Lofoten islands early Saturday morning and flew into Oslo (Norway). Much planning and preparation had gone into this trip so had been an eagerly awaited holiday. From Oslo we took a flight with Braathens S.A.F.E. Airtransport to Bodo where we were met by Steffan.
A satisfying brunch or supper dish influenced by the southwest.
1 cup all purpose flour
1 -1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 large eggs, beaten (or use egg powder) 2 tbsp milk (or use milk powder)
1 can (498 mL) kernel corn, drained
1 tbsp butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed and chopped fine
Before your trip: In a zip-lock, mix flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and cumin.
At camp: In a large bowl, mix eggs and milk (if using dried-add water), corn, butter, onion, red pepper and jalapeno.
Stir in flour mixture.
Heat a non-stick frypan over medium flame.
Spoon 1/4 cup batter into pan and flatten into a 4 inch circle.
Cook 3-5 minutes on each side until golden.
Repeat to make 12 corn cakes.
Serve with salsa and guacamole.
Bodo, the administrative centre of Nordland county. With its 40,000 residents it is the second largest town in Northern Norway. The town is surrounded by beautiful nature, including the B?stindene mountains to the south, and Landegode island and the Lofoten Islands to the north. The logo of Destinasjon Bod?displays the sea eagle. No other town in the world has a larger population of this majestic bird.
Steffan drove us to his parents house where the packing and organising resumed in order to decide what can be taken with us and what can be left behind. We were again fortunate to be driven to the ferry which we boarded at 17:15 that evening. The ferry from Bodo is a popular way to approach the Lofoten islands as it brings you face to face with the islands' most striking feature, the peaks of the Lofotenveggen (Lofoten Wall), a 160-kilometnre stretch of mountains which, due to the islands' proximity to each other, appears unbroken - a towering set of jagged teeth biting into the skyline and trapping a string of tiny fishing villages tight against the shore.
The journey from Bodo to Moskenes took four and a quarter hours. Moskenes is a port midway between Bodo and the southernmost bird islands of Vaeroy and Rost. They are internationally famous for their bird colonies, the crags hosting an incredible number of puffins, eiders and the rare sea eagles, as well as cormorants, kittiwakes, guillemots and more recent
immigrants like the fulmar and gannet.
Here we desembarked and took a 6km taxi ride to a delightful village called A (pronounced Oh!). Here we met up with our outfiitters, www.coastalodyssey.com and our sea kayaking guide for the next week, Frederik.
Our accommodation that night consisted of a smart bright red fisherman shack (rorbuer) which surrounded the dock. The first of these were built round the coastline of the island of Austvagoy in the twelfth century, on the orders of King Oystein, so that visiting fishermen, who came here for the winter cod season, could rest easy instead of sleeping under their upturned boats.
The name rorbu is derived from ror, "to row" and bu, literally "dwelling". Older islanders will ask "Will you row this
winter?", meaning "Will you go fishing this winter?"
A warming dessert for a cold evening
1/2 cup instant (5 minute) rice
handful of dried cranberries or blueberries
1/4 cup powdered milk
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp custard powder
dash cinnamon
1 cup water
Before your trip: Combine dry ingredients in a zip-lock bag and mix.
At camp: Place dry ingredients in a cooking pot and add water. Bring to boil and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.
We then headed to the bar and only restaurant where the seafood was out of this world. Fish dishes consisted of catfish, salmon, Atlantic char, whale meat and cod tongues (Norwegian delicacy).
None of us were brave enough to have the cod tongues - or to hungry to risk a small meal - but I opted for the Whale which was pretty tasty...
Tasted like chicken... NOT!
More like a slightly bitter, iron rich steak.
After dinner we went for a gentle hike around a fjord and were charmed by the midnight sun, we were all ready to get into the kayaks but for now we headed back to the rurbu's and had no problem falling sleep...
Route-wise, we'll be most likely going west to east from Moskenes up towards Svolvaer and our timings would be governed by the tide table since we didn't want to be paddling against the tide. Our accommodation is mainly going to consist of camping and this was going to be made pretty easy by the midnight sun as we wouldnt need any lighting!
The Norwegians have us beat on their "right to roam" with their "free land use law" entitling anyone to use, for free, any privately owned uncultivated land. This law enables anyone to camp for 2 nights on uncultivated land given that your tent site is further than 150m from any building located on the property.
Some good websites out there check out:
July 25, 2003
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